Swarming is the process of natural reproduction of bee colonies. As a rule, hives with a young, highly fertile queen do not come into a swarm mood, provided they are properly cared for. If you expand the nest in time, the insects will be busy with work – their swarm instinct will not wake up.
The content of the article
- 1 Positive aspects of swarming
- 2 Signs of beginning swarming
- 3 What is the scion for?
- 3.1 Making a scion from a board and a bar
- 4 Catching bees
- 5 How to properly assemble a swarm
- 6 Hive transfer
- 7 How to prevent swarms from flying out
Positive aspects of swarming
The swarm time in the apiary cannot be attributed to completely negative phenomena. Of course, the swarm mood can coincide with the main summer bribe and lasts about three weeks. At the same time, nature allows a little more than a month for the main honey harvest. An oversight on the part of the beekeeper will lead to disastrous results – all income from the sale of honey will be lost.
Controlling the swarm instinct, on the contrary, helps to improve the health of the bee colonies and to breed the apiary in swarms.
The positive aspects of this natural factor include:
- Active construction of honeycombs. A strong swarm is capable of building up to 15 frames.
- Disease resistance. The first and second swarms that flew out are less susceptible to various bee infections. After all, swarming is a kind of stress that stimulates the immune system of insects.
- The ability to obtain queen cells from pedigree bee colonies, and then use them to grow strong fertile queens.
- Opportunity for bees to partially get rid of Varroa mites during active summer and swarm formation.
Signs of beginning swarming
A family that has entered a swarm mood stops working. Insects sit on the landing boards, the walls of the houses, the lower half of the frames. Often a club is formed under the boarding board. If the weather is rainy, insects crawl along the bottom of the hive and climb onto the dividing boards.
Another eloquent sign of swarming is the ready-made swarming queen cells, shaped like an acorn and “hidden” from the eyes of the beekeeper in the lower part of the frames.
The flight of swarming bees differs from the behavior of working insects, which first turn their heads to the tap hole, make a small flight, remembering the location of the hive, and only then fly away for nectar.
When swarming, insects leave their house swiftly, without turning to the tap hole. Having flown away at a distance of 10-15 meters, they begin to dodge in the air with a loud solemn hum.
The entire departure takes 5 to 7 minutes. At this time, bees from neighboring hives can join the swarm. As soon as the uterus flies out, the swarm settles in the previously chosen place – it is inoculated. The second and third swarms prefer to move away from the apiary.
What is the scion for?
Grafts for catching swarms in an apiary have been used by beekeepers since ancient times. In the old days, the adapted place for swarms was in the form of a pole with a dried horse skull mounted on it.
Nowadays, instead of skulls, they use tablets treated with propolis tincture, or cone-shaped devices made of wire. They are suspended 2-3 meters from the ground on top of the installed poles. The structure is attached to the poles with hooks to make it easier to remove.
Alternatively, hang a clean portable box with a dark dry. And to lure bees, they use Apira or lemon balm leaves – they wipe the frames and the box itself.
The poles must be strong, as the swarm-pervak can weigh up to 3 kilograms or more.
The graft allows you to avoid unpleasant situations when the beekeeper has to climb behind the bees into uncomfortable places like tall trees, dense bushes, and a fence.
It should be noted that a scion is not the same thing as a trap. Of course, a portable box looks more like a trap or ro-trap. But the simplest structure, built from a board, is a temporary shelter for insects that have flown out of the hive – it will be a classic graft.
Making a scion from a board and a bar
To make a simple scion, you need a board 20 centimeters wide and 40 centimeters long. It is nailed to a bar 30-35 centimeters long.
After that, the bar is covered with an old canvas, removed from the hive as unnecessary, and the lower part of the board is coated with an alcohol solution of propolis. The alcohol evaporates – only a pleasant smell remains, attracting swarm bees.
A wire holder is attached to the board from above. For it, the structure is suspended on a pole or a branch of a tree that grows near the apiary of a suitable height. Sometimes the scion is attached to an unfinished fence or any other suitable structure, that is, at a height below 2-3 meters.
Instead of a wire for fastening, you can use a metal loop into which a bar is inserted. The main thing is that the device hangs securely and motionless.
You can also replace the block with an old frame, if available on the farm. The result is a passive graft just waiting in the wings. But bees do not always react to it. Therefore, experienced beekeepers use another trick.
A frame is attached to the pole. At the moment the swarm leaves, the beekeeper takes the structure in his hands and stands in the center, where insects fly thickly. Gradually they sit on the frame – the swarm is grafted.
It should be noted that swarming insects are not aggressive. They don’t sting for no reason or try to attack! If you collect the bees carefully, without sudden movements, the whole process will take place without stings.
Such a mobile (portable) scion for the apiary allows you to immediately lower the collected insects into the swarm, which simplifies the task for the beekeeper.
Catching bees
As noted above, the easiest way to “collect” swarming bees during their departure is using a pole with an old frame mounted on it. If this is not possible, you will have to remove the club from the high branches of the trees surrounding the apiary. For this purpose, a stripper is perfect – a device that looks like a net with a lid.
A scoop made of birch bark or cardboard is used to transfer insects to the swarm.… An ordinary deep spoon made from natural wood will also work. Sometimes with their help you can collect insects that have taken root low above the ground.
Roevnya Butlerova is a classic device, a must for any beekeeper… It is an oval plywood box equipped with a lid. The bottom of the structure is equipped with a mesh for ventilation. And at the top there is a loop that allows you to hang the swarm in any convenient place, for example, on a tree branch.
The diameter of the fixture is 35, and the height is 45 centimeters. These are factory standard sizes. Folk craftsmen use old buckets or carrying boxes with closed tap holes and a removable mesh lid for the same purpose.
Swarms made of wood or plywood are suitable for temporary housing of bees. This is especially true of portable boxes, which in many ways resemble a full-fledged hive.
How to properly assemble a swarm
To catch bees for the apiary, you will have to wait until the insects hang with a big “beard”. Then an open swarm is placed under the bottom, the branch is shaken – the insects, together with the uterus, fall down.
Sudden movements are unacceptable! A heavy fetal uterus with a hard landing is injured and subsequently becomes unsuitable for reproduction.
If the bees stuck around the trunk of a tree, they first “scoop up” the heaped insects. Usually the “queen” sits in the center and flies down with the whole swarm. And the remaining insects gather around the uterus by themselves. If they are in no hurry to leave their chosen place, you can lightly smoke them from a smoker. But you shouldn’t abuse the smoke – it annoys the swarm.
The insects are carefully shaken off from the scion or removed with a scoop or wooden spoon. Then the swarm (carrying box) is closed with a lid, taken to a shaded place and hung on a strong branch.
With strong excitement of insects, it is necessary to open the lid and let them return to the mother’s family. Otherwise, the bees will steam up and die.
Such excitement is typical for a quick inattentive collection of the grafted “beard”, when the beekeeper did not make sure of the presence of the queen and her transition to the swarm.
It takes about 15-20 minutes to calm down a grafted club. It will take the same amount of time to transplant insects. No need to hurry!
The remaining bees are not injured by the scoop – they themselves follow the queen into the swarm. To do this, the lid is slightly opened, leaving a small gap. Half an hour after all the insects have flocked, the lid is closed and the swarm is hung on a branch.
Hive transfer
While the new family is resting in the shade, a hive is being prepared for it:
- ventilate and warm it up in the sun;
- walls, laps are rubbed with a bunch of fresh lemon balm or mint;
- install frames with foundation (3-4 pieces per kilogram of bees), as well as with half honey (1-1,5 kg) and open brood at the bottom;
- you can additionally put a feeder with sugar syrup.
The dry is placed in the center of the nest, and the foundation is placed on the sides. If there are no brood frames, the installed combs are sprayed with mint syrup.
The brood is always placed at the same time as the swarming bees are planted so as not to chill the young! Brood frames help the bees to get used to it – they do not fly out of the new house and immediately start working. And honey or sugar syrup is necessary to provide a forage base on the first day, especially if the weather is bad outside.
The transplant is carried out in the late evening. You can do this in two ways:
- Shake out insects by patting the plywood sides of the swarm.
- Install the gangway – a wide sheet of plywood – between the swarm overturned to one side and the hive entrance.
The second method allows you to control the presence of the uterus. It is ideal for first-class swarms.
How to prevent swarms from flying out
Most beekeepers try to avoid awakening the swarm instinct in the apiary. In this case, it is easier to control all reproduction processes – it is artificial (layering, cores are used).
Anti-fighting measures in the apiary include the following techniques:
- providing a sufficient amount of feed, especially during the wintering period;
- timely removal of insulation mattresses (from the end of May);
- provision of ventilation by opening wide openings and cleaning ventilation windows;
- change of old sluggish queens (change at least once every two years);
- installation of foundation during the period of active bribe, when the wax glands function well in bees;
- issuing empty honeycombs to families in sufficient quantity for storing honey with a good bribe;
- prevention of tick-borne diseases.
Populating pockets in an apiary is another method of dealing with swarming moods. Of course, this is not a panacea. However, in practice, contradictory pockets significantly reduce the number of bees wanting to leave old hives.
The anti-fight pocket is an air cushion located directly under the nest.
The height of the subframe space in this case is no more than 10 centimeters. It is divided with the help of a plywood sheet into two compartments, 2 and 8 cm high – that is, the actual underframe space and an eight-centimeter air pocket are formed.
Plywood serves as a second bottom, in which nine holes with a diameter of 4 centimeters are drilled. Through them, bees freely enter the pocket.
The main tap hole is located in the air cushion. A ventilation window is cut out opposite it, which is tightened with a mesh.
In order to get outside, insects pass through the plywood bottom, the anti-combat air pocket and the entrance. In the pocket, as the coolest place, all the swarm bees accumulate. At the same time, they do not interfere with the life of the bee colony: they do not build bowls on the combs and do not force the queen to lay eggs there.
The pocket also protects the nest from moisture. Moist air sinks to the bottom and goes out through the entrance to the outside thanks to the natural draft that occurs between the ventilation hole and the entrance gap – they are kept open even in winter.
Young inactive bees that have accumulated in a pocket can be piled up, forming a nucleus. Then put in a dark cool room overnight, giving out kandy for feeding. In the morning, a cell with a uterus (fetal or infertile) is installed in the hive. The hole in the cage is pre-closed with a kandy. After that, the colony is moved to a new point for 10-15 days in order to exclude the return of bees to the previous colony.
